Not much beauty, compassion to be found in new play ‘Bro’

A promo for Test Market's "Bro" - a new play by local writer/director Ernest Hemmings now at the Onyx - tells us that the production "will push your comfort level and challenge your concepts of beauty and compassion while tickling your ribs with vicious observations and cruel, calculated attacks."

But for all the script's "cruel, calculated attacks," there's not much here in the way of beauty and compassion.

We begin with two young, single men discussing the perils of women. Cosmo (Alex Olson) is horrified that he has just slept with a morbidly obese woman. Craig (Shane Cullum) considers himself the Alpha Male who knows all. He doesn't.

When we finally meet the object of Cosmo's nausea - Rebecca (Sue McNulty) - she justifies Craig's dire warnings. Craig has told Cosmo that once a "fat chick" has sex with a good-looking man, she's like a feral cat whom you've just fed: She keeps coming 'round for more. Rebecca doesn't seem to have any self-respect, and we feel embarrassed for her.

And get this (major spoiler coming): When Cosmo finally tells Rebecca what a fat pig she is and how he wants her out, she cries and wonders why he is so mean to her. She leaves, and then by golly, because she accepts him for who he is, he suddenly realizes he loves her. He finds his lovey chubby in, of course, a donut shop eating a chocolate eclair.

This might have worked if the script was one hilarious fat joke after the other, and if Rebecca surprised us in some way, if she gave the plot a twist.

As director, Hemmings demonstrates skilled control in the first act but takes the plot too seriously and slow in the second.

Hemmings gets a fine, relaxed performance from Cullum, but Olson and McNulty are blanks. I could never figure out who they were.

I left wondering: Is Hemmings aware of how manipulative Rebecca is? Is Cosmo wrong not to be attracted to her? And is love so easy that all a woman needs to do to win a man is be obsessed with him?

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at vegastheaterchat@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.